We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
Time struck in pairs.
Also known as: Bell time at sea, Watch bells
The shipboard convention of marking the passage of a watch by striking a bell in counted pairs.
Marks the elapsed half hours of a four-hour watch by strokes on a bell, counted in pairs to eight.
Contexts: History, Navigation
Counts within the watch rather than through the day, so the same number of bells occurs several times in twenty-four hours and tells a listener their position in the watch rather than the time.
Contexts: History, Navigation
Struck in pairs so that a listener arriving partway through can still count correctly from the grouping.
Contexts: History, Navigation
Strokes on a bell in pairs, from one stroke at the first half hour to eight at the end of the watch, then beginning again.